John and George woke me up for the last watch and I waited with Zack while the sun slowly rose. The air was a bit colder up here than I was used to in the bloodfields, but it warmed up quickly once the sun was up. I joined both teams for breakfast behind the rock overhang as we waited for another patrol to head out from the cave we passed yesterday.
“Your team was all on the walls for the last horde?” Aaron asked John. I looked over at that and I saw the rest of my team looking interested, too.
“Yeah, we got lucky. No monsters managed to get past our section of the wall, we had a few E-ranks and a Silver rank near us. Still, it was something else, you wouldn’t believe the number of monsters there were.” John said as he rubbed his arms uncomfortably.
“How do they get past the walls if their silver ranks up there?” Aaron asked angrily. “It makes no sense…”
“There was a Silver rank by our section of the wall, but the city is huge. We were stationed near a gate so the guild made sure it was well-defended. I never understood how monsters always got past the walls until I was up there and saw it, myself.” Alex shook his head and paused as we all looked at him. “It was an endless wave and some parts of the wall only had a single F-rank team of adventurers for every fifty meters. The city is just too big to defend with the number of adventurers there are.” That’s what I had always heard my parents tell me when I asked why the monsters got through the walls. I listened to Aaron and Gabrielle ask John's team questions about the horde while I wondered why they were all still level 5 if they had been Awakened long enough to stand the walls for a horde. I had lost hope that the city of the guilds would be able to defend the outer walls of Brightswell years ago.
“Patrol, heading this way from the cave,” Alex reported from where he was standing watch. We had spent the past hour planning our strategy once we had an opportunity and we all quickly gathered near Alex. “It’s two, like yesterday. If they take the same path we should be able to ambush them here.”
“Good. Let’s move,” Gary led the way towards a location we decided on this morning. There was a slope heading up to the peak of the mountain we were on the side of slightly further along the mountain. The path heading up was hidden from sight until you were right in front of it, and it would give us room to retreat if the fight went poorly. We went a few meters up the path and arranged ourselves in a loose formation, with all four archers and Gabrielle at the back.
“Remember, split them up if we can, we need to focus one down as fast as possible and join together on the second one,” Gary said as we waited for the trolls to make their way to us. Another thirty minutes passed as I waited crouched down on the rocky ground before I saw the trolls pass ahead of us. My eyes widened in shock as I saw the size of the trolls and what I previously thought was fifteen feet seemed closer to twenty from this close. My head wouldn’t even reach the monster's waist.
“Drill Shot”
“Volley”
“Fireball,” everyone cast on the closest troll, and I watched as it stumbled a few steps to the side after it was hit. Both trolls stopped and looked around as the one they hit roared and slammed its club into the rocks. Another round of skills was sent toward the troll and it quickly turned in our direction after it was hit. I swallowed nervously at the troll facing us, the skills didn’t seem to be doing anything other than annoying it from this distance.
“Split up, one team for each troll,” John said quickly as they began rushing towards us. Gary nodded and we jogged a few meters apart before Aaron started shooting the troll in the front. I could see a few arrows poking out of the troll's skin, but clearly, they weren’t penetrating very far. The other troll roared and headed towards John’s team after a skill sent it skidding back down the path.
‘Barkskin,” I cast on Zack, Gary, and myself as we prepared to meet its charge.
“I’ll hit it with an Empowered Strike if I can,” Zack said as he moved forwards to grab its attention while I and Gary moved out to the monster's sides. I felt tiny as I moved towards the giant beast and I watched Zack worriedly as the monster swung at him with its club. The strike moved faster than he could dodge and I saw him cast Vigor and Fortress as I stabbed the troll in the leg. My spear penetrated deeply and I quickly pulled it out and stabbed again while the troll was distracted with Zack. I watched Gary cast Flurry and hit the monster on the other side while Zack held its attention and Gabrielle sent constant fireballs at its eyes. The troll twisted and kicked Gary away after he finished his skill and I slit my spear along its heel as it turned away from me.
“Empowered Strike,” Zack cast while the troll was still turned and he slammed his mace through the troll's thigh. The troll collapsed with a painful roar as it lost half of its thigh and I rushed forwards to stab it in the skull while I had the opportunity. I reached the monster's head at the same time as Zack and we attacked it full force as it struggled on the ground. Zack’s hit managed to cave in the monster's skull and I sent my spear deep into its brain right after.
“Where’s Gary?” I asked as soon as I realized the troll was dead. Zack pointed and I rushed off to his body while the rest of my team headed towards the other troll John's team was still fighting. Gary was on his back holding his stomach and I rushed to his side and cast Rejuvenation. Blood was pooling through his fingers as he held the wound, but he just nodded and gestured for me to help the others. I still had some Essence left, but not much and I would likely need to cast Rejuvenation again before this was over. I jogged towards the fight and I didn’t see John or Derrick, the other melee fighter in his team. Zack had just taken the troll's attention back from the fleeing archers with a swing to the troll's knee.
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“Thornbolt,” I cast at the troll's face as it turned to face Zack and rushed forward to stab the monster's foot leg. The monster swung his club at me from the side and I raised my shield and grimaced. I felt my body go limp as my vision flashed and I opened my eyes dizzily a few moments later.
“Eli, are you all right?” Zack asked tiredly as he walked over towards me. I hesitantly moved my body and determined I was extremely bruised and I had broken my arm and my shield.
“I broke my arm, where’s John?” I asked as I stood up slowly. I glanced around and saw Gabrielle knelt by Gary in the distance, but I knew he would be all right. I only saw Dan and Alex, two of the archers from John’s team standing.
“He took a hit to the head, there’s not much left…” Zack trailed off as he looked sick and pointed down the slope a bit. “Derrik and George are dead, too. They were dead before we finished our troll, I don’t know what happened. We shouldn’t have come here,” Zack rambled as he held my shoulder while we walked to Gary and Gabrielle. Zack waved Dan and Alex over to us as we gathered and they slowly made their way over to us.
“John, Derrick, and George?” Gary asked once everyone reached his side. I glanced around and saw Alex shake his head as he met Gary's eyes and then looked to the floor. No one looked injured besides Zack, Gary, and myself and I realized everyone other than the three of us who got hit died. I had only cast Barkskin on the three of us, if I cast it on everyone we might have all survived.
“Eli?” Gabrielle interrupted my thoughts as I felt nauseous and stared at the ground in the distance.
“I’m fine,” I responded and focused on the conversation the rest of the group was having.
“It doesn’t matter, it’s over now. As soon Gary and Eli can move easier we’ll head back the way we came,” Aaron said to Alex who looked like he was panicking.
“Alex and Dan, keep watch from around the bend, we’ll head down as soon as we get bandaged,” Gary said as Gabrielle started wrapping his stomach carefully. Both of them looked lost, but they looked at each other and nodded after a moment.
“I can walk, slowly, but I don’t think we should rush out of here. We’re still safe, better to heal up first in case we run into more of them,” I said as I knelt next to Gary. Another minute and I could cast rejuvenation, again.
“We’ll heal up, first,” Gary grunted from where we were leaning against his pack. “I’m sorry we came here, this whole expedition was a mistake.”
“Yeah, it was,” Zack said as he slumped down next to Gary. “We all made the choice, though. Let’s just focus on getting out of here, all right?”
Gary looked around wearily and Gabrielle sat back with a sigh after she finished wrapping his wound. “Aaron, can you check the bodies while Eli recovers Essence?” Aaron nodded and headed over to the bodies in the distance while I focused on the heavy, comforting feeling of the odd Essence in the mountains. I cast on Gary a couple of minutes later and he was able to stand and walk.
“F-rank cores on both of them. They had a pouch of big stones, too,” Aaron said as he walked over. I looked at the pouch he was carrying and he watched as he poured out a few stones the size of my fists. They looked like regular rocks except they had faint blue lines that trailed across the surface.
“F-ranks?” Gabrielle questioned glumly. Aaron nodded with a sigh and I found myself thinking over the fight as I wondered if I should have cast Barkskin on more of us. I sat quietly as I waited for my Essence to regenerate and barely noticed when Aaron shook me worriedly a few minutes later.
“It’s been half an hour, are you ready?” I focused back on my surroundings and realized I had been full of the essence for a while with a grimace. I quickly cast Rejuvenation on Zack and then on myself a few minutes later.
“Let’s go,” I said after the uncomfortable healing effects wore off a few seconds later. Gary nodded and we headed down the slope until we reached the cliffside where Alex and Dan went to keep watch for more patrols.
“They’re gone,” Aaron said as we reached the bottom of the slope. I looked around in confusion as I took in Aaron's words. We hadn’t heard anything and it didn’t look like there had been any fighting.
“They left when they saw our injuries…” I trailed off as I understood why they left. “I should have told them about my skill, they would have waited for us and we could have left safely together.”
“Maybe we should have, but they also just abandoned us without saying anything. If they said something, you would have told them.” Gabrielle stated as she shook her head.
“Oh well, hopefully, we’ll catch up to them on the path. Let’s keep moving,” Gary said and we started down the ridgeline that led to the path we took up into the mountains. We moved carefully down the path as we constantly checked over the ridgeline to see if we were safe, although we didn’t see any more patrols. We continued walking for a few hours and made it over halfway back to the Bloodfields before the sun started setting. We hadn’t seen any signs of Alex or Dan on the way back and I couldn’t help feeling guilty about how everything turned out. Zack seemed to notice the struggle on my face as he walked beside me the rest of the night and chatted as we hiked. We stopped wearily at Gary’s signal and we all dropped our packs beside a couple of trees. I pulled up my status as I rested against my pack and drank some water after the long day.
Eli - Lvl 4 Druid
Experience - 3370/5000
Strength-9 (+1)
Dexterity-9
Perception-7
Vitality-8
Spirit-9
Willpower-9
Barkskin - Level 7\10 Upgradeable
Experience - 620\6400
Thornbolt - Level 5\20 Upgradeable
Experience - 330\3200
Rejuvenation - Level 4\10 Upgradeable
Experience - 400\1600
Entangle - Level 3\5 Upgradeable
Experience - 330\400
“We’ll talk in the morning, let’s just get to sleep early and get out of here with the sun,” Gary said over dinner. No one was talking as we all contemplated the day and the deaths of the people we had spent the past few days with. I didn’t know how I felt about everything, but I realized we were pushing ourselves too fast, we had time to reach E-rank. We still had most of a year before we would face our first horde, and even if we only reached E-rank by then I was confident we would survive. Most adventurers on the walls during a horde would be F-rank. I spent hours thinking over the day before I could calm my thoughts and fall asleep.